


Going Inside

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Character Study, Fifteen Minute Fic, Friendship, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Loneliness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-03-22
Updated: 2004-03-22
Packaged: 2018-02-21 11:18:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2466314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's an art to being oblivious, a certain amount of effort needed to let yourself be free of others' opinions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Going Inside

**Author's Note:**

> This ficlet was inspired by the 3/21/04 [15minuteficlets](http://15minuteficlets.livejournal.com) word #47. It was slightly revised in February 2008. (This is not my firm and unshakable opinion on Luna. It's simply one of many possibilities that I was exploring.)

There's an art to being oblivious, a certain amount of effort needed to let yourself be free of others' opinions. Luna began cultivating herself years ago, having decided that the real world -- as the _Daily Prophet_ described it, anyhow -- was full of sharp edges and blankness and not at all where she wanted to live. So she turned inward to her own version of reality.

It's simply more interesting to believe in Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, after all. Who cares if they may not be real outside her mind? They're real inside, and that's good enough for Luna. Reality is relative, after all -- for Muggles, _any_ magical creature is as ridiculous as a Crumple-Horned Snorkack, yet what wizard would deny the existence of dragons or centaurs?

The trick is to remember what's real inside and what's real outside, and to not mind the way other people don't bother to separate her perceptions. The trick is to not mind the names they call her, to calmly track down her stolen things instead of pitching fits or bursting into tears, to see thestrals and not think of her mother. It's not that hard once you learn the way of it -- simply label that part of the world a different level of reality, and ignore it.

It's a little lonely, shifting between inside, outside, and the way-beyond places she's labeled "Here There Be Dragons," but Luna's learned that trick too. She has her father, she has the animals that don't care what level of reality she's in today, she has the portraits who are as mad as everyone else thinks she is, and now she might even have friends.

She could do without Voldemort, but friends? Friends might be worth the risk of death and destruction smashing through her shifting definitions. She's not strong enough to keep all the nasty things in the way-beyond, but she'll fight as long as she can. If they catch her outside -- if she has to run -- they'll never reach all the way inside, no matter what curses they use. Luna can keep going in forever.

And when the outside calms, and she ventures forward again, maybe her new friends will be there to meet her.


End file.
